Level A2

Its vs It's

It's raining.

Look: It's raining. We can say it is raining, so the apostrophe is there.

Forms

• It's cold today. — with an apostrophe: it is
• The dog lost its ball. — without an apostrophe: it belongs to it
• The car has a problem with its engine. — without an apostrophe: a thing follows

A common mistake

Wrong: Its raining.

Right: It's raining.

A common mistake is to write it with no apostrophe. We say: It's raining.

More examples

It's my favourite song.

We can say it is my favourite song, so: It's my favourite song.

The bird is building its nest.

The nest belongs to the bird, so: The bird is building its nest.